ASIC Says CFD Review Returned Nearly $40 Million to Retail Investors

ASIC says its review of Australia’s CFD sector helped return nearly $40 million to more than 38,000 retail investors, while also forcing a broad cleanup in how issuers distribute high-risk leveraged products. The regulator reviewed 52 licensed CFD issuers between October 2024 and December 2025 and found repeated weaknesses in design and distribution controls, product intervention compliance, and transaction reporting.

One of the sharper findings was that more than half the sector had breached ASIC’s CFD product intervention order by offering “margin discounts” to retail clients taking opposite long and short positions. ASIC said those clients took on extra funding costs without a realistic path to profit from the offsetting structure. The review also led to corrections across reporting systems after ASIC identified more than 70 million erroneous OTC derivatives reports.

The regulator says firms changed target markets, onboarding questionnaires, website disclosures, and client outcome monitoring after direct intervention. That matters because CFDs and forex remain products where losses can pile up fast, especially when leverage and ongoing financing costs are poorly understood.

Why it matters

This is not just a paperwork story. ASIC is signalling that weak onboarding, sloppy target-market definitions, and gimmicky distribution tactics around leveraged products will keep drawing scrutiny. Brokers selling CFDs to retail clients now have a louder warning that “high risk” language alone is not enough.

What to watch next

ASIC said its CFD product intervention order expires on 23 May 2027 unless it is remade, and that industry engagement on the next step is coming in 2026. That follow-up could shape how aggressively Australia keeps leaning on product design controls in the sector.